The Missing Bridge

Who thought you'd actually miss a Bridge.

I asked m fiance to marry me on a small bridge in a location special to us. I'd miss that bridge if it was to be removed. I chose it because I assumed it wouldn't move. EVER.

I like to re-visit that bridge.

So, a bridge over the M3, Woodlands lane bridge to be precise, went missing this last weekend. I mean, it wasn't stolen, it was planned, it didn't just vanish overnight, look here is the video of them blowing it up....I love blowing stuff up, well I would if I was allowed and fire, Love fire.

The Missing Bridge

I hadn't really thought about the implications. I didn't live near it, ok I'd ridden over it a fair few times but it didn't really bother me.

Or so I thought.

Turns out, in winter, this is one of my best and the quietest routes I can ride. Keeps me away from the traffic and runs adjacent to the A30 from Staines to Camberley. Bit dark but nothing a decent light won't sort. I had a KOM down that way too, not over the bridge, kinda wish I had now, would have stood the test of time, unlike the structure....

My KOM got stolen by 1 second. A guy liked my ride on Strava, then buggered off and stole it. Good skills. I won't get it back now because I would only ride that route if the bridge was there, damn bridge.

Apparently the bridge will be replaced at some point but this could take years. Hopefully something like this one. It is going over a 'Smart Motorway' so it can't be crap.

So if you've read my previous blog post you'll know I'm (we, cyclists, scourge of the masses) not allowed to cycle though Windsor Great Park at night, cause we create so much hassle.

This is a picture of the park at night. It's not accurate as there is no warden and no green flashing lights.

So the fact of the matter is, my two best routes home in the dark are no longer available to me. Which sucks. So I need to ride up the A30, partially at least. I know there is a lot of traffic (boo) but the roads are wide and lit, So at least there is a better chance of being seen and safe.

Now I miss a bridge.

He had flashing lights!

It was a wet and damp night, the wind was picking up, I needed to make a decision on the best route home and fast. History told me the park would be dark, REALLY dark. I remember riding it before and my mind wondering on to Ghosts and Zombies. Cause that's what I need to think about in the dark, when i'm alone.

I have a handful of options but this year it seem's drivers are getting closer and driving faster. I'm not sure why. I didn't want to ride on my best lit route because the roads are crap and the traffic always heavy. The M3 bridge has been taken out on my alternate route so that has now become more dodgy as a result of it. More traffic, less options, brilliant.

That left a solo ride through WGP (Windsor Great Park) as my best option.

Wicked, I got this.

Off I went. As I approached the park from Bishops gate, the road leading to the access gate was dark, I could see the faint light of the guard station on the right and not much else until the large white gates loomed. I knew it was going to be dark but this was bleak. Pitch black beyond those gates. It was a terrible day, so the natural light was very limited.

You know those postcard's you used to get at seaside towns with 'Devon at night' and just a black card. Yeah that Dark.

Screw it, I'm here, I got this. I ventured in. My Lezyne Power Drive was EPIC...., I'd gotten about 500 meters into the park and a warden drove up next to me......he tried to talk to me so I slowed but couldn't hear him, I'm not sure if he thought I was ignoring him or not but he drove faster and then......PUT ON HIS FLASHING GREEN LIGHTS....I mean come on man, WHY does a park warden need flashing lights of any colour?! What kind of power trip are these people on!.

I thought flashing lights were saved for the emergency services, road side assistance and the like, not a poxy park ranger.

This picture says it all. I'm sure cyclists are a big threat to the park......haha erm.

The guy was nice enough, told me I couldn't cycle through the park after dark but he'd allow me to this one time. This did kick off a little panic in my mind thinking 'why can't I be here after dark, what is so bad in here that a cyclist can't witness it', nah I'm so not afraid of the dark.

Ah rules is rules but its so nice to have a route which isn't accessible to public traffic, having it taken away just seems unfair. Honestly, what harm would a cyclist do after dark? I just want to get to the other side.

This week, I've mostly been doing......nothing

It's Thursday. It's raining and its blowing a gale.

I'm not missing much I know.

I've not ridden my bike since......wait, I need to check Strava....WOW last Thursday. It's been exactly a week and nothing.

I'd usually be climbing the walls by now, the fact I'm not means I'm injured. Not a lot, just a little but enough to keep me off the bike. A recurrence of an old injury, well actually just a niggle to that injury but I really don't want to go back there again. So a week off the bike it is.

I could ride and just use pain killers but whats the point, I'd rather be pain free. Damn it, I've got no goals, so I may as well let it heal.

Odd things back injuries, I think this latest niggle was caused be me bending over and swinging my 5 month old son about in an impromptu game of balloon football with his 7 month old friend at the weekend. It was fun while it lasted.

Actually, last Friday I fitted a Gatorskin onto a narrow rimmed wheel in what seemed like seconds. It was like an out of body experience, like I was outside of my own body watching a master fit this tyre.... It was unworldly.

Look, its there, in all its glory. The mudguards cost £13.49 yeah, don't be judging my install prowess....

I realise that is just a picture of a tyre on a wheel but it really was a thing of beauty. Ask the wife. I'd set aside 2 hours to do this just in case it all went wrong and I used the usual 3 tubes, 4 tyre levers, drawn blood and stamped on something. That's the normal process.

4 years of commuting and it never gets easier, changing tyres. It will always suck. It is nicer in a warm house though as punctures generally happen for me on unlit roads in the pissing rain.

I'm losing about 150 miles sitting here, working from home. I'll make up for it, maybe. Might not even bother. Might. Next week I'll ride 4 days. 200 miles. To make up for it. Couple of cheeky weekend rides, I'll get it back.

Now I want to be riding my bike....

I'm off too eat cheese.

I need some of those.....

Man it's getting cold.

And wet.

When it's both, it sucks. Period.

Tuesday morning was one of those days. I was stood waiting for a ride bud and all was well. It was 3-4 degrees but seemed ok. My ride bud didn't show. Recons he 'overslept'. Hmmn, I recon he looked out the window and thought 'errrrmmmmm, nah I'll stay in bed'. I'd happily have done the same had I of had the choice :)

Then came the rain and it didn't stop. I don't have winter shoes, currently. I have summer road shoes, shoe covers and 2 pairs of socks. One pair of socks are 'SealSkins'. That said, I've worn them for a few winters now, just the one pair. So they both have holes in. A cracking sock though, worn everyday through last winter and since about October this year. They've had better days.

I did plan on replacing the socks but now I've decided I need a proper pair of winter boots. So I'm holding out on the socks. I'm hoping the efficiency of the new boots will mean I'll only need wool socks, which are widely available, as opposed to SealSkins. We'll see.

I did own winter boots. Up until spring. Done me a good few winters but were never quite what i'd hoped for from a winter boot. Dry feet. Ok so I know water will always come through the ankle at some point, it's bound to. Fairly sure my old MTB winter boots leaked through the sole. Took an AGE to dry them out too.

But these look freaking awesome. Esp when a headlight shines upon them. Ok so £160 is a lot of money for a winter boot, actually its not, it's completely justifiable but perhaps it is from a non cycling point of view.

I've ridden 7019 miles this year now. I'm aiming for 8000. I think. Although I'm not sure I'll be too bothered if I don't get there. Lets be honest, no one is going to send me a medal for hitting the 8k mark. Maybe we should get letters from the Queen.....

'Hey Chap, it's HRH, just a quick note to say 'Well Done' for not contributing to our tiny islands ever growing traffic problems. God only knows, there are enough twats on the road without you adding to it'.

I'd take that. She'd make a valid point. Cycling has made me a very impatient driver. So much more aware of whats going on around me than simply looking in the direction I'm driving in. You really do become aware of what people aren't doing, like indicating, or stopping to give way. I'm not sure when it became ok for everyone to ignore the Highway code, perhaps everyone's journey simply is as important as they make out. I doubt it.

Anyway, I need dry feet. 2 freaking days it took to get my shoes dry and my gloves coming to think of it. 2 days of me riding in cold and damp kit. So Defrosters WILL be added to the cycling wardrobe come December. Will be soooo nice not to have to worry about poxy shoe covers and 2 pairs of socks.

I'm excited.

Mileage

I love the attached graphic. The comparison of my year on year totals. Really enjoy looking back to see how I stack up year on year. 2014 was always going to be a big year for me, I cycled to Barcelona that June and it was EPIC. Around 950 miles. Beautiful weather, decent roads, stunning scenery. I'd do it all again tomorrow if only I could.

When I returned from Barca (no, I didn't ride back), the month after the event was fairly non eventful when it comes to mileage. That's when I decided to go for 10,000 miles for the year. I'd trained hard for the event, done a couple of big months prior to the 'Grand Depart' and ended up with a few 1000 mile months and anyhow, I still had to commute to work and back for the rest of the year so I may as well have a new target right.

Need a good target, I remember downloading an App and counting down from over 200 days until the moment I left for Barca. Loved that. Shame it was over so quick.

So the target became 10,000 miles. To be fair, I was single at the time, so it helped that I had nothing better to do, literally.


Not really sure of the benefit of adding 2011 but whatever, progress is progress right!

But once you've completed that target, what next? I'm not single anymore (yay), I've got a 4 month old baby (yay). It's been easy this year to drop miles. Miles I'd have been bothered about in years gone by but due to the new arrival, I'm just not. Priorities right.

But where is the ceiling, if you can do 10,000 then why not 12,000 or 15,000 but what's the point, where does it stop?

It's all about getting to and from work for me now. Its still the best part of my work routine. I freaking LOVE my commute. Always will, I enjoy every element of it, Even in the worst conditions. It can be quite gratifying arriving at work, knowing your work out is what got you there. No need to feel guilty for missing a gym session or eating junk. September, when the kids go back, the roads are crap, I love cycling past all the miserable faces creating traffic, sitting alone in their cars, queue after queue. Nah you can keep that thanks.

As a family we own one car. I feel guilty if I take that car and it sits at work for 8 hours when the wife could be using it to take our son out. Weekend riding is a thing of the past, for the most part. So when I think about it, I'm fairly content with my 6608 miles total to date. Well I'm not but it will do.

Ow, having said all that, I have the 'Devils Punch sportive' coming up this weekend. Doing it with a pal, think we'll be doing the short 50 miler, just because its October and neither of us can be bothered to ride any further!

Sound advice pt I...The safety pin

Hmmn, I've not cycled today.

This makes me partially sad. I need my bike, it's my form of Release. It helps me clear my mind and set the pieces straight in my head. I had allocated lunch time for a short spin, I like to ride 25 miles on each commute. I can ride a shorter route but 50 for the day is a nice number. If I ride 4 days, I want to hit 200, 3 days its 150 you get the picture. I've ridden 3 days this week, 145.7 miles. Not happy about the dropped miles. In the grand scheme of things, it means nothing but it gets on my tits all the same.

...instead I went to Sainsburys and spent too much money on the kids in the half price toy sale. Priorities right.

I wasted my entire lunch break doing this, I didn't even have time for buying food. The wife had to go back for that....

Anyway, so advice. ALWAYS carry a safety pin in your saddle bag.

A friend asked me the other day if I check my tyres before every ride. I said ' I do but it's pointless if you don't because i'll be waiting for you anyway', We were riding together and I was commenting on his lack of checking and potentially avoidable puncture. Neither happened thankfully.

So I thought 'screw it' and didn't bother checking mine. Got to the cross roads about 5 minutes into my commute, stopped for the train and noticed a flint in my tyre. Leant the bike against a wall and out comes the safety pin. Lesson learnt.

I've picked a good number of flints from my tyres before setting off for a ride and always think to myself 'wear that you little bugger' before flicking the flint at a mates parked bike....nah that would be silly. Cause you know he'd be fine, I'd park in his space the following day and, yeah you guessed it, I puncture.

But seriously, very worthy addition to the saddle bag that safety pin, nothing gets flint out quite like it. Just make sure you have a steady hand.

Generic Muck

Generally speaking, the generic tyres that come with any bike/set of wheels are, by default, a touch pants.

Always been the case. Whatever bike, whichever set of wheels, the tyres are always set to a price point. I assume they provide them knowing they'll instantly get replaced with the riders preferred rubber of choice. A bit like pedals, no decent bike comes with pedals nowadays as there is so much choice and each rider has a different preference.

I've bought a few set's of Mavic rims in my time, the generic tyres are good for about a 1000 miles, as an unwritten rule. When they start to cut and or puncture, get rid.

When I bought the Allez, the bike came with these. The Specialized Espoir Elite.

Specialized's detail here. Specialized class them as an 'Extremely reliable road tyre'. I have the 700x25's on my bike.

Now I changed the wheels on my bike as soon as I bought it, changing out the standard wheels for Shimano Ultegra 6800 road wheels, personal choice but I moved the Specialized tyres on to the new rims. Generally a good tyre with decent puncture protection has stiff sidewalls and fights to get on the rim. Not these, safe to say this was the easiest tyre change I've ever done.

I held out little hope of these tyres lasting any distance. I thought 'well, if i get 500 miles it's a start'.

Now I know this is tempting fate and its Friday and I will bloody curse this blog if I puncture BUT 1976 miles so far without a p******e (if I don't say it, its ok right) is bloody good going.

I keep a safety pin in my saddle bag and I do check my tyres before EVERY ride for any debris that is waiting to take me down. I have pulled shards of flint and glass from the tyres on at least 3 occasions, all credit to Specialized's 'BlackBelt Flat Protection' belt for keeping me rolling.

Honestly, these are a cracking summer tyre. I'm not a delicate rider by any means, British roads don't allow me to be. I will be buying these again.

I do intend to put the standard wheels back on the bike with a set of Gatorskins to see me through the winter but these tyres will adorn my summer wheels for years to come as I've become a real fan. A very dependable tyre, with a great level of grip, low rolling resistance and good puncture protection. Who Knew!